Grasshopper Film (Firm)

Michael Almereyda blazes a wild path through mid-20th-century Hollywood via the experiences of Hampton Fancher, a flamenco dancer, actor, and the unlikely producer and screenwriter of the landmark sci-fi classic Blade Runner. A consummate raconteur, Fancher recounts episodes from his remarkable life.

His profile takes us inside the life, struggles, philosophy and humor of a man who credits his success to the deliciousness of peanut butter. Featuring delightful animated interludes and interviews from colleagues, editors and his nine children, this look at Stevenson's life - who is also a noted writer of children's books and a columnist for The New York Times - is a testament to observing the world from an original perspective.

Henry Glassie has made a life out of studying folk artists and the marvels they create. Over the past 50 years, the renown US scholar has travelled to five continents, conducting fieldwork with an obsessive thoroughnes. Each project Glassie undertakes requires at least a decade. Brimming with insights into the artistic impulse-and how every culture manifests its own standard of beauty and meaning-this poetic portrait of Glassie doubles as a travelogue,...

A rapid-fire eye-popping and ear-pleasing study of textile patterns around the world. Filmed over five years, in fifteen countries, director Jodie Mack places textiles against surprising backgrounds, editing the imagery to a homemade pop soundtrack.

Mara and Jo, in their twenties, have been close friends since middle school. It soon becomes apparent that Jo, despite her intellectual gifts, is unreliable in her professional life, losing and acquiring jobs at a troubling rate. Substance abuse may be responsible for Jo's instability, but some observers suspect a deeper problem. Over a decade, the more stable Mara sometimes tries to help, sometimes backs away to protect herself, but never leaves...

A Cape Verdean woman travels to Lisbon to reunite with her husband, after two decades of separation, only to arrive mere days after his funeral. Alone in a strange, forbidding land, she perseveres and begins to establish a new life. Winner of the Golden Leopard for Best Film and Best Actress at the Locarno Film Festival, as well as an official selection of the Sundance Film Festival.

Once a city that was 90% Polish, Hamtramck became the first Muslim majority city in America. Now, this new wave of immigrants aim to gain representation in city hall. HAMTRAMCK, USA follows Kamal Rahman, a Bangladeshi candidate for Mayor, Fadel al-Marsoumi, a 23 year old Iraqi immigrant running for City Council, as well as the current mayor, Karen Majewski, Hamtramck's first female mayor in the city's 100 year lineage of Polish mayors. Throughout...

This episode features Ynés Mexía, an accomplished Latina botanist.

Lawrence Allestad and family were among the last of the traditional sheepherders of the American West. Under a public grazing permit that had been handed down in his Norwegian-American family for generations, Allestad was the final rancher to drive his herds into Montana's rugged Absaroka-Beartooth range north of Yellowstone to fatten on sweet summer grass. The family members and their hired hands conducted the drives much as their pioneer forebears...

For decades the great Taiwanese filmmaker Tsai Ming-liang has been directing exquisite examinations of alienation, isolation, and the fleeting beauty of human connection featuring his muse Lee Kang-sheng. This is one of his best, sparest, most intimate works. Lee once again stars as a variation on himself, wandering through a lonely urban landscape and seeking treatment in Hong Kong for a chronic illness; at the same time, a young Laotian immigrant...